Spring hand-grip.



S. A. ALDEN. SPRING GRIP. APPLICATION FILED APR. 29, 1908.

910,259. Patented Jan. 19, 1909.

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UNITED STATES PATENT @FFTQE.

SILAS A. ALDEN, OF lBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

SPRING HAND-GRIP.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SILAS A. ALDEN, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Spring Hand- Grips, of which the following is a specification.

This invention is a device designed to exercise the forearm, and to serve as a spring grip to furnish a yielding resistance upon which tne hand may be closed in performing calisthenic and other more or less severe muscular exercises.

The invention consists of a plurality of members which are yieldingly held apart and capable of being pressed together by the compressive force exerted by closing the hand about them.

Of the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1 represents an elevation, partly in section, of an exerciser embodying the essential features of my invention. Fig. 2 represents an end view of the same.

The same reference characters indicate the same parts in both figures.

The grip consists of two rigid bars a and 6 arranged side by side and preferably parallel to one another, being of such a diameter and held at such a distance apart that they can be conveniently grasped in the partly closed hand of the user. They are maintained in their most expanded condition, which is shown in Fig. 1, by springs c and d located between them at their ends. These springs are made of stout wire bent double and preferably coiled with one or two convolutions, being bent to such an extent that their end portions extend in approximately the same direction. The ends of the bars on their inner or adjacent sides are slotted by means of a saw or milling cutter, to make grooves c, which grooves are of sufficient extent to contain the ends of the springs and receive the inner limbs of the coils when the bars are pressed together.

The extreme end portions of the springs are bent with an S-shaped curve to provide a length cl lying along the inner surface of the slot, and a stud (Z extending approximately perpendicular to the bottom of the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed April 29, 1908.

Patented Jan. 19, 1909.

Serial No. 429,903.

groove and embedded in the body of the bar. This formation of the spring makes an ofiset (Z and a shoulder (Z at each end of each spring. In the angle of the offset (Z is located a pin f which passes through the body of the bar and crosses the groove, there being one of these pins at each end of each of the bars. The pins retain the springs in the position shown in Fig. 1, with the oifsets (Z against the inner limits of the grooves 6, while the shoulders d prevent the springs slipping out of the grooves. "When a compressive pressure is applied to the exerciser by closing the hand in which it is held, the bars are pressed together, and the coiled or bowed port-ions of the springs are further bent. The ofisets (Z bear against the bottoms of the grooves and transmit the pressure of the springs thereto, yieldingly resisting the approach of the bars to one another. During this movement, the offset (Z acts as a tulcrum which partially withdraws the end (Z from the hole in which it is contained, but this end portion is of great enough length not to be entirely withdrawn from the holes, so that the proper relation between the springs and bars is never disturbed.

I claim 1. An exerciser consisting of separate bars arranged side by side and having recesses in their inner or adjacent sides, and a spring located between and connected to, said bars, arranged so as to hold them apart and permit them to be forced together by contraction of the hand in which they are held, said spring being mainly contained in the recesses when the bars are brought together.

2. An exerciser comprising bars having grooves in their ends, curved springs interposed between said bars to hold them resiliently apart, said springs having their ends extending into said grooves, and abutting against the bars, and pins crossing said grooves between the outer limits of the grooves and the springs to retain the latter.

3. An exerciser comprising bars having grooves in their ends, springs interposed between the bars, said springs being doubled back so that their ends extend in approximately the same direction and are contained in said grooves, and pins retaining the spring ends in the grooves.

4. An exerciser comprising bars having grooves in their ends, springs so curved that their end portions extend substantially in the same direction, arranged between said bars with their ends inclosed within said grooves and embedded in the bars, and pins passing across the grooves into offset angles of the springs, retaining said springs in po- 10 sition to yieldingly resist compression of the exerciser.

In testimony whereof I have aflixed my signature, in presence of two witnesses.

SILAS A. ALDEN. WVitnesses:

C. F. BROWN, P. W. PEZZETTI. 

